I was definitely wrong about bedding RES not eating much. I shot a video a few days ago and one of them must have eaten 3 dozen small BSF larvae. I guess they were wary of a new type of food initially, but now they're fighting to get to them. I'll post a video of a feeding session soon.

It seems like my RES have been spawning for several weeks now. I'm really surprised by how shallow the beds are. The pond is at full pool now and if I lost a foot of water almost all of the beds would be dry.



Another thing that surprised me is that out of the initial 24 adult RES stocked this year they all seem to be in the same area. I counted 11 (males?) on these beds. Safety in numbers? When I feed them the BSF larvae I see other RES (females?) in the deeper water close to the beds. It's great because I'm able to see the condition of most of the adults that I stocked. I'm happy to say they all look fat and sassy. \:\)

Some of the 1.25 inch RES I stocked in mid March are also making beds. They range in size from 3 - 4 inches and some of them are right in the middle of the larger fish. I'm assuming they aren't much more than a year old. Is it possible they could spawn or are they just "playin house"?

Here's one with a quarter for reference:



I'm throwing these RES fish pellets along with the black soldier fly larvae. Sometimes I'll see one take a pellet by reflex, but from what I've seen they've been spitting them out. I guess I wouldn't want dry toast if there were cheeseburgers everywhere. \:\)

Last edited by GW; 07/20/08 10:10 AM.